On Tuesday 17th June, I was up and out relatively bright and early to make my way over to The Royal College of Physicians for the start of the Law Firm Ambition conference 2025. Competing effectively in the legal sector I was lucky enough to have been invited to speak on a panel all about how law firms can differentiate themselves from the competition and get more work as a result. It won’t surprise you to learn that my advice was all about reputation and specifically, how law firms can utilise PR to monetise it. Panel session insights: Competing with others for new business As part of the panel session, I spoke about two frameworks that we use at LexRex to effectively deploy PR strategies that help law firms to grow. One is the step-by-step framework we use to create effective PR strategies – and you can access that framework by downloading the Law Firm Leader’s Reputation Playbook. It provides deep insights into what makes an effective reputation, along with step-by-step exercises to help law firm leaders audit their reputation and start to utilise it to best effect. I also talked about the PESO framework, which we use to ensure that we consider four key aspects of PR when creating a strategy. They are Paid, Earned, Shared and Owned. Again, the Law Firm Leaders’ Reputation Playbook defines and explains this framework, giving actionable insights and advice on how you can use it to better leverage your reputation. I gave my top tips on how to create effective legal directories submissions (we went from very strategic to very tactical during the panel, I was asked to provide specifically actionable advice, which I think I did!) All of the legal directories advice and insights that I provided can be found in the Legal Directories Resource Hub, which you can access completely free of charge by becoming a member here. My top three takeaways for attendees were: Be strategic Remember that PR is a long game. Share your firm’s strategy with the people creating and delivering your PR strategy. However, the day wasn’t just about my insights. In fact, I played a tiny part in what was a hugely insightful and interesting set of presentations and breakout sessions. Here’s a brief insight into some of the speakers and sessions that took place on the main stage of the conference. Ben Hunt-Davies, Rower, gold-medal-winning Olympian and founder of Will It Make the Boat Go Faster? I’m fairly sure I’ve seen Ben speak in the past; his presentation is entertaining and gives plenty to think about. His hot take is essentially that we shouldn’t do anything in business unless it metaphorically ‘makes the boat go faster’. He talked at length about all the things that the eight-man rowing team did and concentrated on in their campaign to win gold at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 (spoiler – they won). Ben also talked about the difference between results and performance, and he recommended that we always concentrate on performance, because sometimes results can happen despite performance. I think this is a good lesson. Andrew Hedley, Hedley Consulting – The changing competitive landscape Andrew’s talk was all about strategy (a subject very close to my own heart at all times!) He was particularly keen to ask us to consider the fact that we can’t do everything all of the time, and that we need to be careful about how we allocate our scarce resources to achieve a competitive advantage. He also suggested we undertake horizon scanning for challenges, including: The firms we compete with today. New firms entering the market. The fact that clients want better, faster and cheaper (no change there!). The things that are costing us more. The things that will take away the need for us. And consider – how much we are prepared to change? I quite liked his definitions of between tactics = running faster, and strategy = running a different race. Managing Partner Secrets I can understand why this panel returns each year; the speakers were all very open, frank and funny with their insights. The panellists were Chris Allen (Blacks Solicitors), Victoria Davey (Gordons LLP) and Duncan Jackson (Buckles Solicitors LLP). The session was ably hosted by Chair, Alex Holt (Cashroom), with topics ranging from whether you should monitor your competition (Victoria said no, focus on what you are doing, Duncan said no, compete in your own locations and Chris said, yes absolutely, we are OBSESSED with the competition). Other topics included advice on CRM systems, how to get more work from your existing clients, why recruitment is so hard (and how to get better at it), AI, what ‘winning’ looks like, and how to get people back into the office. Being honest, this was probably my favourite session of the day. I really appreciated the time and honesty provided by the panellists. The latter sessions included a talk by Bernard Savage, who talked about how to be unique. His focus was on niches and how important it is not to have too many. He also suggested that firms avoid worrying about the competition. The day closed with a session by Dan Warburton. He suggested that firms need bold leadership for big results. Those in leadership positions need to lead by taking note of and dealing with ineffective behaviours by getting compassionate instead of angry, and finally by collaborating, not manipulating. He finished with the message that “the standard you walk past is the standard you accept.” Sensible advice. In all, the Law Firm Ambition Conference was a really enjoyable event and is one I’d recommend to law firm leaders. This was the fourth iteration, and what I think is particularly effective is that each conference is themed. This should help the organisers to avoid the content becoming stale and will hopefully ensure a rotating roster of new speakers each year. The attendees from law firms were mainly at the senior end (perhaps due to the ticket price, which
Marginal gains – the hidden levers of growth This year there’s an absolutely fascinating focus by LexisNexis’ Bellwether Report 2025 on marginal gains within law firms. Or as Olympic gold-medal winning rower Ben Hunt-Davis would ask, ‘does it make the boat go faster?’ In fact, Hunt-Davis recently spoke on this exact topic at this year’s Law Firm Ambition conference in London. Another law firm consultant who knows his stuff, Simon McCrum also references the quote in his latest book, The Perfect Partner. Incidentally I will be reviewing that book soon, and you can read my review of his second book The Perfect Legal Business here. LexisNexis Bellwether Report 2025: A review Focussing upon small tweaks with big impact is an interesting topic, and the Report delivers great insights as ever. Read on for my overview and you can also read the Report here. Also, kudos to LexisNexis for avoiding building a report entirely focussed upon the AI chat that is dominating every single piece of law firm consultancy or advisory content that I see currently. Is AI important and potentially game changing for law firms? Yes. Should it be the sole focus for law firm leaders? Absolutely not. Is it included in the report? Yes, but proportionately. The Bellwether research methodology and participants I always like to start any review with a look into the methodology applied to the research, and I’m always particularly interested to see how many respondents replied, their seniority and the spread of the response between firms of different sizes. I think it’s really important to understand these figures, especially when it can be so easy to take headline percentages at face value. It is particularly important to be diligent where a) response numbers are low and b) where junior lawyers are disproportionately represented. There’s nothing wrong with including responses from those at the start of their career, but it’s true to say that most, if not all, of them will have no real idea of the pressures and challenges faced by those running the firm that employs them. Unfortunately, information about seniority isn’t included in the below, so again remember to take all of the figures with a pinch of salt and do try to apply your own judgement and experience to the findings and supporting comments. Here’s the methodology: “The Bellwether 2025 survey, conducted in April 2025, gathered responses from 308 legal professionals across England and Wales. Firms of all sizes were represented, with 26% from practices with five or fewer fee earners, 23% from firms with six to ten, 29% from those with 11 to 20, and the remaining 22% from firms with over 20 fee earners.” M&A down, organic growth up Six in ten or 48% (148) respondents confirmed that their firm has grown over the past 12 months, an increase from 28% on last year. M&A focus declined from 10% in 2024 to 5% this year, with 72% of respondents aiming for organic growth. There are a couple of different respondent comments on the reasons for this drop which include the cost of M&A (mergers tend to be cash hungry – requiring legal, financial, HR, compliance and reputational advice). Remember also that managing and completing a deal is massively time-consuming, leaving little or no time for those leading to concentrate on anything else. There’s also a comment that organic rather than M&A growth ensures that law firms retain full control of all aspects of the business, along with a suggestion that cultural cohesion may play a part in choosing to grow with what you’ve already got. Spending now, spending later Spending priorities reveal some interesting insights. Hiring has become more of a priority, with 23% having already undertaken this step with 39% planning to in 2025. 17% have already spent on technology investment and 43% intend to this year. 16% of respondents increased spend on marketing, and 33% plan to increase that spend this year. 11% increased spend on business development, with an even bigger planned increase to 36% in 2025. I think this is a slightly slippery set of figures as I’m almost certain that if you asked even two lawyers in the same team to define marketing and business development, they’d both almost certainly come up with different answers. It will be so interesting to see whether these proposed spending increases come to pass as, in my experience, they tend indicate an increase in confidence in the market. When confidence is low, marketing and associated cost tends to be one of the first to be cut. Interestingly, the report authors come to a slightly different conclusion with regards to the above statistics stating that “Some firms have already increased their spend in these areas, but instead of acting in the moment, the majority are planning for the future.” This suggests less confidence than I’m predicting. Clients just want more Unsurprisingly enough, since we see it in every single sector report, pesky clients still want more, for less, as quickly as possible. “80% of respondents saying clients now expect faster communication and quicker answers. While that figure has dipped slightly from 83% in 2024, the message is the same: responsiveness isn’t just appreciated, it’s assumed.” There’s still a real focus upon pricing, with 50% of respondents explaining that clients want clearer, more upfront fee structures, up from 44% last year. This trend reflects broader economic pressures.” I’m not sure I agree with the final sentence, I think it has ever been thus. Interestingly, one respondent, an associate at a small firm said, “Clients always should come first, then cost and outcome second.” There’s a lot to unpick with this comment. Yes – client service should of course be prioritised, but I’m not sure that a) the client would be happy for you to automatically put service before cost (you’d have to ask them obviously) and b) I’m fairly sure that many, if not most, wouldn’t prioritise service above outcome. On a separate note, and again with regards to the
The power of a great PR campaign… And how law firms can use these lessons to achieve growth. Today I’m writing about blood. Don’t worry, you’re not entering a romantasy novel (although all power to you if you enjoy the vampire trope, I am not here to judge lol. Everybody else – as you were). No, this blog is taking a look into some of the more tactical considerations and tools at the PR’s disposal, and today the focus is upon media relations. As ever, my advice is aimed at law firms. If you read the first blog in this series about PR tactics, you already know how important crisis comms are when it comes to reputation management. If not, you can read that post here. I’ll also be writing about other tactics available to PR and marketing specialists over the next few weeks. If you run a law firm and there’s anything you’d like to see discussed – do get in touch and let me know. But back to blood. Unless you live under a stone, you’ll have seen that the NHS is desperately short of blood. In the UK blood is donated by volunteers and is called upon for all manner of medical procedures, in emergencies and, I imagine, to support ongoing treatment for a range of medical conditions. By what do blood shortages, the NHS and law firms have in common, I hear you ask? (it must be my vampire hearing– SORRY not sorry lol). Blood services are managed by an organisation called NHS Blood and Transplant and they have a PR team. It’s clear that at some point recently, blood bank levels were dropping to a lower level than anybody was comfortable with, and the PR team was called in to help. I had initially assumed this was a crisis brief, but having dug deeper, I suspect things have been planned with a slightly longer timescale in mind. Whatever has happened behind closed doors, the planning and delivery of this campaign is a masterclass in effective, strategic and measurable PR. Now, it’s worthwhile noting that I don’t work for this organisation, so I’m having to take a bit of a stab (lol) with regards to their terms of reference and goals etc. However, it is clear that their immediate goal was to increase blood donations and looking at the press coverage – the aim is for 1 million people to donate blood. Incidentally it happens to land around (but definitely not randomly), the 9th – 15th June, which is National Blood Week. I suspect this awareness week was also created by NHS Blood and Transport’s PR team as a great vehicle and news hook for building awareness and engagement over a number of years. Turning to the strategic approach for this particular campaign, we can see that: There was a clear Goal – achieve 1 million donations. Strategy – this was probably something along the lines of ‘utilise an existing awareness event (National Blood Week) and effective media relations in order to reach the goal of 1 million donations / 1 million people donating blood within x period’. Another point to note is the brand that NHS Blood and Transport use for their B2C audiences. You probably haven’t heard of NHS Blood and Transport (me neither), but you definitely know ‘Give Blood’. Clever eh? Tactics NHS Blood and Transport are active on social media – check them out on Instagram: givebloodNHS Media relations – this campaign has achieved wall-to-wall media coverage across broadcast, broadsheet, tabloid and online channels. Content – the Give Blood website contains not only content about the campaign but provides clarity around the particular types of blood sought and gives a live feed of the centres with donation appointments available today. With regards to target audiences my view is that the obvious primary target audience is people in the UK who are eligible to give blood. However, looking again at the outputs, I suspect that the following were also identified as key audiences: People in the UK who are eligible to give blood and are type O negative, B negative and A negative – as these types of blood are currently critically low. The key messages are probably essentially: Make an appointment today to give blood Register today to give blood in the future Measurement should also always be a component of every campaign, and in this case either 1 million people will give blood, or they won’t. Either way, the campaign is measurable. The above is the CIPR-approved strategic approach to effective PR, and you can see how easily this campaign fits the model. At its heart, this is an excellent campaign that ticks all of the boxes for a really effective approach, that delivers against the goals and nails the brief. The good news for law firms, is that strategic PR can be used very effectively to support your firm’s growth strategy. Whilst you’re less likely to achieve the levels of coverage this campaign has generated, it’s perfectly possible to generate opportunities to be seen by your target audiences in your key media. Often, all it takes is a little planning. If you are interested in leveraging your reputation in order to support your law firm’s growth – you should definitely register for our latest guide. The Law Firm Leaders’ Reputation Playbook has been created to give managing partners and owners of law firms a toolkit to start to understand, develop and utilise their reputations in order to achieve growth. Download your copy here. Victoria Moffatt is the founder and managing director of LexRex. A non-practising solicitor she has been supporting law firms with their PR for over a decade. Get in touch with Victoria to discuss your law firm’s PR needs. Connect with Victoria on LinkedIn.
